Should I Rank 1st for My #1 Keyword

regina: [00:00:11] Hi everyone regina: [00:00:11] It's Regina from solutions eight regina: [00:00:13] You're probably wondering regina: [00:00:15] If you're running search campaigns, is it worth it to try to rank at the top of the regina: [00:00:20] page or even the absolute top of the page? regina: [00:00:23] Or is it better to just get the cheaper clicks down in the middle of regina: [00:00:27] the page or the bottom of the page, especially for your main keyword, you regina: [00:00:31] might see, your competitors at the top and that really, really irks you regina: [00:00:35] And so you kind of want to get to the top as well regina: [00:00:38] But is it gonna be profitable or not? regina: [00:00:41] So that's what we're gonna talk about today regina: [00:00:43] I'll show you first, how to look up, how much of the absolute top regina: [00:00:47] of the page you're already hitting regina: [00:00:49] And then we're gonna talk about some of the pros and cons of trying regina: [00:00:51] to get to the top of the page regina: [00:00:53] And then I will talk to you about how to run an experiment, to see whether it's regina: [00:00:57] more profitable to try to do that or not regina: [00:01:00] So before I dive into all of that, I just wanna say there's no straight answer regina: [00:01:05] I wish I had a straight answer for you guys regina: [00:01:07] I know you always hear this, the answer to this question of whether it makes sense regina: [00:01:11] to try to get to the top of the page or whether it's more profitable to hit in regina: [00:01:15] the middle of the page is like almost everything else in the world of business regina: [00:01:19] It changes, it changes by industry regina: [00:01:21] It changes by keyword regina: [00:01:23] It can change regina: [00:01:24] Based on what's on your website based on what your competitors are doing regina: [00:01:27] based on whether it's raining outside regina: [00:01:29] I mean, there's so many factors that go into it regina: [00:01:32] So the only way to know for sure is to run an AB split test regina: [00:01:36] And I'm gonna show you how to do that regina: [00:01:37] When you try to regina: [00:01:40] Hit the top of the page regina: [00:01:42] The clicks are going to cost more, right? regina: [00:01:44] It's a bidding system regina: [00:01:45] So everyone's trying to get to the top regina: [00:01:47] So those very top placements, showing up in the search results in the first regina: [00:01:52] placement is gonna cost significantly more than showing up, down on the page regina: [00:01:57] So the cost per click goes up, however, The leads that tend to regina: [00:02:02] click on the ads at the top of the page, have wallet in hand, right regina: [00:02:05] They're ready to buy regina: [00:02:06] So the conversion rate also goes up regina: [00:02:09] So yes, cost per click is more, but yes, conversion rate is more regina: [00:02:12] And so at the end of the day, bottom line, does your cost per regina: [00:02:16] conversion go up or down, that's all that we really need to answer regina: [00:02:20] And this could be a yes for one keyword and a no for another keyword regina: [00:02:25] And so you might have to run several experiments and then it might be a yes regina: [00:02:29] for the summer and a no for the spring regina: [00:02:31] And so you might have to run even more experiments regina: [00:02:33] So really, it can be really granular regina: [00:02:35] It depends on, how nerdy you wanna get with the data regina: [00:02:37] How much you want to try to fine tune, every little thing to regina: [00:02:41] get to maximize your profit regina: [00:02:43] So right now in this account that I have pulled up, this is actually an regina: [00:02:47] SEO agency that targets SAS companies regina: [00:02:51] So it's one of our clients regina: [00:02:53] And they were asking me this question on their favorite keyword, which is S E O regina: [00:02:59] For SAS companies regina: [00:03:01] And they said, we see our competitor always at the top regina: [00:03:04] We wanna be at the top too regina: [00:03:05] Is this gonna raise our cost for conversion? regina: [00:03:07] And my answer regina: [00:03:09] Well let's try it out for a while and see, and I'll, show you why the answer is regina: [00:03:14] a little bit more complicated than that regina: [00:03:15] So right now search top impression share is I can see 19% search regina: [00:03:20] top impression share is 28% regina: [00:03:23] So the difference between these two columns, top impression share regina: [00:03:26] means top of the page, right? regina: [00:03:28] There's usually like three or four ads before the organic listings begin regina: [00:03:31] We're showing up 28% of the time in that area this month regina: [00:03:35] Cuz I have this month pulled up and then search absolute top regina: [00:03:38] impression share 19% of the time regina: [00:03:40] Then if I go into this campaign, I can see, there's different ad groups regina: [00:03:44] One of them is SAS SEO regina: [00:03:46] So for this one, I can see that data here too regina: [00:03:48] Right regina: [00:03:49] 36% of the time were regina: [00:03:51] Oh, that's not the right column search regina: [00:03:52] Absolute top impression share is 12% of the time for that ad group regina: [00:03:56] And search top is 18% regina: [00:03:58] So most of these keywords are pretty much our favorite keywords, SEO regina: [00:04:03] agency, SEO agency, cuz this is someone looking for an SEO service regina: [00:04:08] For a SaaS company regina: [00:04:09] But you can see this data here as well, by the way search regina: [00:04:13] absolute top impression share regina: [00:04:14] You can see it on a keyword by keyword basis regina: [00:04:17] So some of them are 20% regina: [00:04:19] Some of them are less than 10% regina: [00:04:21] It's just kind of all over the place and it's up to the algorithm because regina: [00:04:24] the way that we are bidding right now is we're just using max cost per click regina: [00:04:29] And sometimes we fine tune those bids, right? regina: [00:04:32] So we might pay $50 for one regina: [00:04:35] Keyword $60 for another and only $15 for another regina: [00:04:39] Some keywords are more expensive regina: [00:04:41] Some keywords have proven to get us a high conversion rate or a high quality of lead regina: [00:04:46] And so over time we started to fine tune those regina: [00:04:49] And that's just how we're doing the bidding over here now regina: [00:04:51] What I would recommend regina: [00:04:53] Is to set up something called an experiment regina: [00:04:56] And if you're not familiar over here on the bottom left, there's regina: [00:04:58] a section called experiments regina: [00:05:00] And when you start to set this up, it has you choose a campaign and regina: [00:05:03] it almost duplicates the campaign regina: [00:05:06] And then you can tell it to run 50% of that campaign's add regina: [00:05:11] Daily budget to this version of the campaign regina: [00:05:15] So that's how experiments work and I started one here regina: [00:05:19] It's not quite set up just yet, but one thing that we could do is regina: [00:05:23] For this experiment before we launch it, just change the settings regina: [00:05:27] So that the way that we're bidding is, either we're significantly increasing regina: [00:05:32] , the cost per click, or we could change the bid strategy and let the algorithm regina: [00:05:36] handle it and just say, Hey, target impression, share, absolute top of regina: [00:05:40] the page a hundred percent of the time regina: [00:05:42] And that that's gonna kind of just max it out regina: [00:05:45] And we could send half of the budget to that regina: [00:05:47] For a while and see how that goes regina: [00:05:50] So the thing is if, and when you run this experiment, you wanna make sure regina: [00:05:55] that you have the patience for it because you can't just run it for a week regina: [00:05:59] You can't just run it for two weeks regina: [00:06:01] You have to run regina: [00:06:03] For as long as it takes for you to get a significant body of data and to regina: [00:06:07] be able to see the averages in each section of the experiment, right? regina: [00:06:11] , the real campaign, which is section a and the experiment, which is section B, you regina: [00:06:16] need to have, I would say at least five conversions Ideally more in each, so 10 regina: [00:06:23] conversions in total and for a company like this, with the ad spend that we regina: [00:06:26] have and the leads are pretty expensive regina: [00:06:28] We're maybe getting a couple of conversions a month regina: [00:06:31] So, this is a simple math equation regina: [00:06:34] You take the daily budget, the average cost per click and just try to figure regina: [00:06:38] out or the average cost per conversion, rather just try to figure out how regina: [00:06:42] many months you're gonna have to run this experiment and sending 50% of the regina: [00:06:45] budget towards this before you're gonna be able to see the averages, right? regina: [00:06:49] Cause you need an average cost per click on the experiment, the average regina: [00:06:52] conversion, click through conversion rate on the experiment you need to regina: [00:06:55] have, at least five conversions in each to get those averages and to see regina: [00:06:59] At the end of the day, is the cost per conversion going up or is the cost per regina: [00:07:03] conversion going down in my experiment? regina: [00:07:05] So that's that I do encourage experiments regina: [00:07:09] I would be running experiments regina: [00:07:11] All the time regina: [00:07:12] If I was a small business owner and here at solutions eight, we do, we have often regina: [00:07:16] run experiments for things like that because you just never know, the strategy regina: [00:07:20] that we find successful for most of our clients might not apply for your business regina: [00:07:24] So experiments are always helpful and always worth it regina: [00:07:28] Well, I shouldn't say always worth it regina: [00:07:30] sometimes it's gonna be a waste of money, don't run it, but if you're not regina: [00:07:33] sure run it and you don't have to send 50% of your budget there, by the way regina: [00:07:37] you can send if you're not willing to Invest in experiments that quickly, regina: [00:07:42] you can always just send 20% of the budget towards the experiment and regina: [00:07:47] run it for a longer period of time regina: [00:07:48] That way the investment in testing new strategies won't be as great regina: [00:07:55] It'll be spread out over a longer period of time regina: [00:07:57] You do run into a little bit of a, seasonality issue regina: [00:08:02] But I don't think seasonality is the biggest factor here regina: [00:08:05] Everything else is bigger than seasonality when it comes to this type regina: [00:08:08] of thing, like competition coming in and outta the market, that type of thing regina: [00:08:11] So anyways, best of luck with this and let us know how your regina: [00:08:15] experiments go in the comments